Abstract MP11: Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Cardiovascular Disease in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition Study
Authors: Maria Gabriela Matias de Pinho, Joreintje Mackenbach, Jeroen Lakerveld, Joline Beulens, Inge Huybrechts
Journal: Circulation (2023)

Introduction: Diets containing many ultra-processed foods (UPF) are linked to unfavourable health. UPF are defined by the NOVA classification as industrial food and drinks made from substances not used in domestic culinary preparations, such as hydrogenated fats, modified starches, and other food additives. There is evidence suggesting a link between UPF consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence, but this association has not been tested in a large European cohort. Using data from the pan-European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC) study, we assessed the hypothesis that higher consumption of UPF is associated with an increased risk of incident fatal and non-fatal CHD and stroke in the EPIC-Heart cohort. Methods: Case-cohort design nested in the EPIC cohort including 36,415 adults from Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Socio-demographic, lifestyle factors and usual dietary intake were assessed at time of recruitment (1992 - 2000) using country-specific validated questionnaires. Consumption of UPF was expressed in percentage of grams per day. CVD cases ascertainment varied across EPIC centres and included hospital admissions, linkage to registers, self-report and mortality data. Proportion of missing values ranged from 0.95% for smoking status to 14.2% for history of diabetes. We performed multiple imputation on all covariates with missing values. Cox proportional hazard models with age as the underlying time variable stratified by sex, centre and age were used to test the longitudinal association between UPF consumption and coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke incidence adjusted for confounders. We applied prentice weights to our cox proportional hazard models to account for the case-cohort design. Results: The mean contribution of UPF to the overall diet in grams was 14.2% in men and 12.8% in women. After a median follow-up time of 9.7 years, it was documented 11,973 non-fatal and 2,281 fatal CHD events, and 6,765 non-fatal and 899 fatal stroke events. In models adjusted for education, smoking, physical activity, body mass index, height, diabetes, high blood pressure, alcohol, energy, and sodium intake, and the Mediterranean diet score, each 10% increase in the consumption of grams from UPF was associated with an increased risk of non-fatal CHD (HR 1.13, 95%CI 1.02 - 1.26), fatal CHD (HR 1.33, 95%CI 1.09 - 1.62) and fatal stroke (HR 1.40, 95%CI 1.07 - 1.85), but not with non-fatal stroke (HR 1.11, 95%CI 0.98 - 1.24). Complete-case analysis showed similar results. Conclusion: In this large prospective cross-European study we found that higher proportion of UPF in the diet was associated with an increased risk of non-fatal CHD and fatal CHD and stroke. These findings corroborate other large-scale cohort studies indicating that the increasing consumption of ultra-processed intake may contribute to higher CVD incidence.